Like our
contemporary world, some poems are best understood as complexities. They lean
toward the unwieldy, unable to contain themselves in a brief, simple, linear
fashion. That's when it's time to break the poem open to see where it might go.
This seminar will look at strategies for moving a poem draft from the
simple to the complex—from the linear to the braided, the multi-faceted.
We'll be looking for a variety of ways to deepen a poem that
is better-served by the complications of collage, associative
leaps, research, as well as other approaches that can enlarge and enliven
the poem. And the ironic thing is this: to complicate a poem is simple. If
you already have an in-progress poem you'd like to deepen in this way, please bring
a draft or any notes/research. The seminar
includes a class packet with suggested writing activities, pertinent quotes,
and resources for participants to take home and turn to later for
further investigation of the topic.

SC Academy of Authors brunch, 2013

"Every door is a lesson in leaving...."

POETRY BOOKS:
My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass (2013), winner of the Cider Press Review Editors Prize. Finalist for the National Poetry Series, the Prairie Schooner Book Prize, and the Robert Dana Anhinga Prize. Available at http://ciderpressreview.com.

Keep and Give Away (University of South Carolina Press, 2006), winner of the SC Poetry Book Prize, judged by Terrance Hayes; the SIBA Book Award for Poetry; and the Brockman-Campbell Book Award, judged by Rigoberto Gonzalez.

Lessons in Leaving, chapbook. Winner of the Persephone Press Book Award, judged by Brendan Galvin.

Other awards and prizes: the 2013 Edward Stanley Award from Prairie Schooner; the 2013 SC Academy of Authors' Carrie McCray Nickens Fellowship; and a 2011 Verna Ubben Fellowship to VCCA.